The Best Solution to Burnout We’ve Ever Heard | A Conversation With Slack, Netlify & Ambassador Labs

**Dana Lawson** (0:00)
I read a really great article, and I apologize to that author out there. Your name passes me, but they said, shipping is the heartbeat of your team. And I was like, wow, yes, because that's a pretty standard indicator, because we're trying to remove friction, right? Just like in life, a good experience in life is a nice paved path where the things that you want to do and the things that you want to grow on are really exciting and challenging, but you're not coming up and being annoyed by the thousands of paper cuts.

**Conor Bronsdon** (0:31)
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Hi, I'm Conor Bronsdon, Executive Producer and sometimes host of Dev Interrupted. With registration for our free October 25th Interact Conference now open, I wanted you to hear my favorite session from this past April's Interact. Featuring the best minds from Slack, Netlify and Ambassador Labs, our session on Inspiring Engineering Leaders & Driving Developer Creativity led to a stellar conversation on topics like Dev Toil, DevFocus and Burnout. This episode is a great preview of the type of content we're working on for our third Interact Conference in October, and it made me rethink how I approach burnout in my own work and for my team at LinearB.
If you like it as much as I do, be sure to sign up for October's free virtual Interact Conference at devinterrupted.com/interact and enjoy the show.

**Dan Lines** (2:00)
Hey everyone, I'm your panel moderator, Dan Lines. I'm the host of the Dev Interrupted Podcast and co-founder of LinearB and I get the pleasure of introducing our panel participants.
So I'll start out with Dana Lawson, SVP of Engineering at Netlify and also a veteran Dev Interrupted community member. Dana, welcome to the panel.

**Dana Lawson** (2:26)
Thanks, I'm excited to be back on the show. It's always an interesting conversation when you join this rodeo. I love it. Thanks for having me.

**Dan Lines** (2:36)
Awesome.
Next, we have Milena Tlavera, VP of Engineering at a little known company called Slack. Milena, welcome.

**Milena Tlavera** (2:46)
Thank you so much. My first time here. Super excited.

**Dan Lines** (2:50)
Yeah, awesome to have you on. And we have Katie Wilde, VP of Engineering at Ambassador Labs.

**Katie Wilde** (2:56)
Hi, thank you. I'm happy to be here.

**Dan Lines** (2:59)
Awesome. So I'm incredibly excited to welcome all of you to interact. It's going to be an amazing day of learning and networking and an opportunity for us all to continuously improve. Let's start by getting to know our panelists a little bit better. Obviously, you are all very, very successful leaders in your own right. But Milena, we'll start with you. You've been promoted at Slack three times in the last five years and are now leading Slack's infrastructure organization.
What has the experience taught you about how to grow your career?

**Milena Tlavera** (3:36)
Yeah, I mean, I've been lucky to have found a supporting place where leaders and people recognize my impact.
But I think in terms of what I've been doing myself is really I try to focus not so much on the promotion, but what can I do to better the company, the culture, the team, and really focusing on that. I try to take risks when appropriate and sort of dive in. There are definitely many opportunities where like, oh, Melaina, can you do this thing? And I hesitate for a second, and then I'm like, okay, I'm just going to dive in and do this.
So I think I've had the support system in place, but also just really try. I like to feel challenged. I like to feel mentally stimulated. And so I look for those opportunities where I can drive improvement for the company and the team. And so I think that has been paying off in my career so far.

**Dan Lines** (4:39)
That's awesome. Dana, I saw you shaking your head yes when Melaina was talking about a support system. Did anything hit you around there hearing that?